


everything stays

by inigosflowers (hyliaslight)



Series: the flower and the flame (red as dawn, my lovely bird) [1]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Crimson Flower Route, Fluff, Late Night Conversations, Multi, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Pre-Relationship, if anyone's Annoyed by the relationship tags tho i can adjust em, no spoilers tho except for the monastery itself, which is why i'm tagging the platonic and ship tags because it can be read both ways!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-08 14:04:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20836700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyliaslight/pseuds/inigosflowers
Summary: (—but it still changes,ever so slightly,daily and nightly,in little wayswhen everything stays)A moment in the old Black Eagles classroom.





	everything stays

It was long past midnight and longer still since she should have retired to her bed, and yet for some reason, rather than taking a much-needed rest in her quarters, Emilia found herself here: sitting, cross-legged and sleepless, on one of the tables in the old Black Eagles classroom.

It was, of course, dark at this time of the night, lit only by the dim glow let off by the single candle she’d brought with her. Yet as her eyes adjusted she could see more and more of the familiar room. This was the exact spot where she had sat for so many lessons, and for all that she had doodled and day dreamed the time away when she should have been paying attention, she still remembered every inch of the layout. There was the chalkboard, still angled just so, and there was the professor’s desk, as neat and clean as it had ever been. The pillars that might have loomed like figures in the dark were in a way only the figures of old, familiar friends. This was a room practically drowning in memory.

Despite the amount of damage still being repaired around Garreg Mach, this place in particular had changed so little since she had been a student that she imagined she could actually be back there, in that time. She wasn’t sure if that hurt more or less than the more obvious changes to the monastery she had known.

It was pointless to obsess over the past, Emilia knew, especially when she ultimately didn’t regret the actions she'd taken to lead her here. But ever since she had returned to the monastery, and even more since the _professor_ had returned to the monastery, bringing that final reminder of faith and trust in another’s protection, she had been haunted by the ghosts of peaceful days wherever she looked. There was just something so incredibly sad about seeing soldiers in full armor milling around where students once lounged, full of laughter and smiles. It felt like a loss.

She stared at the Black Eagles banner on the wall and wondered if she would still feel this paradoxically empty and full when the war was finally over. If she lived to see it at all.

“Emilia?”

A feather-light touch to her shoulder snapped her back into the present, and she dragged her eyes away from the banner to find she was not alone. Edelgard stood next to her, dressed for once not in her full Emperor’s regalia, but modest loungewear, with her hair loose around her shoulders. Even with the dark thoughts that still hung in the back of her mind, she felt her heart skip a beat at the sight.

“E—Your Majesty,” she stuttered, straightening out of the slouch that had overtaken her posture.

“None of that, please,” Edelgard said with a slight smile. “It’s just us right now, after all.”

“Edelgard, then,” Emilia conceded, mustering a small smile of her own. “What are you doing here so late?”

Edelgard laughed. “I could ask the same of you, but I expect we would have similar answers. Sleep is hard to come by, these days.”

“It is, isn’t it.” Emilia sighed, and her shoulders slumped once more as she glanced around the classroom. “I can’t stop thinking about…how much has changed. Since we were students.”

Edelgard was silent for just a moment, but it was enough time for Emilia to worry that she had said the wrong thing. Then she hopped up to sit next to Emilia on the table, closer than was perhaps strictly necessary.

“Truthfully, I find myself thinking about that all too often as well,” Edelgard said softly. There was another pause as Emilia digested that statement, the vulnerability that Edelgard was willing to show her by sharing it. “Do you regret transferring to our class back then? Choosing to follow me against the church?”

“No!” Emilia blurted out immediately, horrified at the very thought. She looked at Edelgard and found the emperor already watching her with tired, lilac eyes. It hit her then, that the burdens of her choices must weigh on Edelgard much more than anyone realized—because as their leader she couldn’t afford to show any sign of weakness or regret. “I—I don’t like fighting against my homeland, but—Edelgard, that year in the Black Eagle house was the best time of my life. I couldn’t ever regret it.”

Warmth sparked in her cheeks as she added quietly, “I couldn’t ever regret following you.”

A small yet blindingly bright smile spread slowly across Edelgard’s face. She placed a hand over top of Emilia’s own, murmuring, “I am glad to hear it.”

“As am I,” a deep voice cut in from behind them. Emilia startled and craned her neck to see who was there, though she really needn’t have—she would recognize Hubert’s distinctive tone anywhere. Hubert smirked as he strode over to the pair from the doorway. Unlike Edelgard, he was still in his usual daytime wear, lacking only his long black cloak and, surprisingly enough, his gloves. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him without gloves on before.

“Hubert,” Edelgard acknowledged, voice warm with amusement. Emilia realized she must have known the moment he arrived and flushed further at her own lack of awareness. She’d been too busy being hyperaware of every little movement from Edelgard. “Unable to sleep as well?”

“There is no rest for the wicked, as they say,” he replied smoothly. “Nor, I suppose, the righteous.”

Emilia’s lips quirked up at the corners, and Hubert’s smirk seemed to actually _grow _in return. Did that really happen, or was she sleep deprived enough to be seeing things?

“And you don’t plan to specify which one you actually are, do you?” she asked once she recovered from the surprise, feeling suddenly, unimaginably fond. He inclined his head in agreement, and somehow she managed to truly laugh at that.

It was incredible how much she could feel her heart begin to lighten in the presence of these two, despite the darkness she knew them to carry themselves. She had heard them evaluate which lives to spare and which to take, seen their faces grow hard and cold in the midst of violence—and yet she had also been privileged to behold moments like this. Moments of warmth and camaraderie. Moments in which she remembered that they fought this war with a brighter, happier future in mind, no matter how far off and hopeless it might seem in the present.

A soft touch to the small of her back startled her out of yet another reverie. “I think I might be more sleep deprived than I realized,” she admitted sheepishly as she met Hubert’s searching eyes.On her other side, Edelgard hummed amusedly.

“And I thought Hubert had trouble turning off his brain,” the emperor teased.

“Oh? I didn’t think he ever really tried,” Emilia teased back with a smile and a sly glance at the dark-haired man.

“Why should I?” he sniffed. “My uninterrupted higher functions are only to the benefit of Her Majesty. Best to keep them that way.”

She giggled, sharing an exasperated yet indulgent look with said Majesty. Edelgard shook her head and slid off of the table. Before Emilia could feel so much as a flash of regret at the loss of Edelgard’s presence next to her, the emperor held out a hand. “Come, Hubert,” she said with a small quirk of her lips as Emilia took the hand and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. “We should escort the lady to her quarters before she becomes so lost in thought she wanders away from the monastery entirely.”

Emilia made a face at that, but protested neither the friendly ribbing nor the escort. Now that she thought about it, she really was very tired. Maybe she would finally be able to fall asleep tonight.


End file.
